By Ukoha Njoku Ukoha

The report, "Nigerian Governor Abandons Multi-billion Naira Government House, Runs Govt from Country Home", published on the platform of Premium Times, is an indictment on the past PDP administrations in Abia State.

A bunch of people making brouhaha out of Q3 Budget Expenses does not have a record of what they spent on the new Government House by their successive governments and administrations. The 'repented' apostles and messengers of transparency, do not have any evidence of competitive bidding for the completion and substandard furnishing of the new Government House, hurriedly commissioned in the last days of former Governor Okezie Ikpeazu's administration.

It was common knowledge that former Governor Ikpeazu operated from his palatial Umuobiakwa country home, built with Abia tax payer's money, while serving as governor. Before then, he had his residence at the Governor's Lodge in Aba, which he turned into a de-facto Government House and drinking joint.

According to J.K. Rowling, "A Villain's strength lies in their ability to manipulate others". Former Governor Ikpeazu left Abia State without any functional Government House. The old Government House, whether owned by the State or rented, was rendered unusable in the dying days of Abia PDP Government. The aides of the Governor were given the green light to loot the property dry. They left only the skeleton of the buildings inside the Government House. Office furniture, Stationeries, electronics and electrical appliances, household items and even conduit and surface wires were plundered. It was done on broad day light with Government trucks and pick-ups evacuating the loot. The traffic with loaded trucks and pick-ups along Umuahia-Ururuka Road during the dying days and hours of former Governor Ikpeazu was unprecedented.

The new Government House was built up to a level by former Governor Ikpeazu's predecessor, Theodore Orji. A fundamental question for any inquisitive mind should be why former Governor Ikpeazu did not complete and use the 'edifice' but abandoned the project for more than seven years, only to device a fire brigade approach to 'complete' and COMMISSION the project on the eve of the inauguration of an opposition government, led by the nightmare of Abia PDP in the person of Dr. Alex Otti, OFR.

We know the difference between project execution and retiring funds in the guise of project. Dave Umahi, former governor of Ebonyi State, represents the former and Okezie Ikpeazu the latter. The supposed completion and commissioning of the new Government House was nothing short of an audio wash-wash, full of over invoicing to retire already looted and plundered Abia State resources, just like the aborted hurriedly packaged local government (s)election the Abia PDP wanted to bequeath to the new Labour Party government, to maintain their criminal grip on the State resources, including the 7,000 new names added to the State Payroll by a Government that was owing arrears of workers' salaries and pensions of Senior citizens.

In elementary economics, we are meant to understand that to effectively manage scarce resources, there is need for scale of preference. Governor Alex Otti met humongous problems and a State left in ruins by the Abia PDP. He had no time for excuses on assumption of office. He drew the scale of preference around the resources available to him. The visionary Governor understood the need for a befitting Government House but needed to tackle more pressing priorities especially those with direct impact on the State and People; salaries and pensions, waste management and flood control, easing movement of people and goods, security and stimulating the State Economy. It is an irony that the same characters that left the State without a functional Government House are the same people disparaging their victim, who resorted to the unpleasant alternative of operating from his private home built with his private funds while serving as a Governor.

The Governor is focused and cannot be distracted because he understands that the greater fruit a tree bears, the greater the number of stones thrown at it. The Governor is encouraged by the fact that critics do not determine how high an Eagle flies and the larger bricks the Abia PDP throw at him, the more bricks at his disposal to build larger infrastructure for Abians.

The Editors of Premium Times should ask the Abia PDP why they could not build and operate from a new Government House in 24 years while our younger Ebonyi State built and operated from a new, befitting Government House. Premium Times can do Abians a favour by asking the agents of Abia PDP why there was no public record of the cost of building the said new Government House they could not operate from. It is only when they show Abians their own cost of running Government and all Q3 Budget Expenses in the last 24 years that Abians can determine who wasted or is wasting public funds on Refreshment and Meals.

Abians are happy with the Government they elected. Stars are not praised for shining during the day, but at night.

You heard me!!!!

...Ukoha Njoku Ukoha, Omeifuku writes from Abia Innovative and Industrial Park. NNL

By Godwin Adindu

I love the wisdom of our ancestors. May their souls rest in perfect peace. They were great sages, thinkers and philosophers but, regrettably, their insights and wisdom were not documented like the West did to Plato, Aristotle, Socrates and the rest. There is this saying that our ancestors passed down to us: that the big talk is but for eight days. Unfortunately, the Abia big talk about expenditure on food, entertainment, honorarium et al did not last up to eight days. It boomed and fizzled away within two days.

By Edward Usoro

The legislature has a crucial role to play in checking corruption and breaches of integrity in the judiciary. And, beyond politics, it is now committed to see that happen. That was the summation of a paper presented by the President of the 10th Senate and Chairman of the National Assembly, Senator Godswill Akpabio, CON, at the All Nigeria Judges’ Conference, recently.

By Emeka Obasi

Something different is happening in Abia where fresh air makes the environment smell sweeter than Jazz perfume. Governor Alex Otti sure knows where he is going, the journey does not need a better driver and the people are enjoying the cruise.

By Ikeddy Isiguzo

IT was just a day, if ever there was such a day, for people in the city. Something was strange about the young taxi driver. His troubles were ahead of him. One could feel them. The long sighs, the endless ringing of his phone. He never took the calls. He seemed to have exhausted solutions to whatever bothered him.

By Bola Bolawole

Sections of the Yoruba are beginning to grumble about his appointments and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu must to hear this, like the Zazu crooner, Portable, sang in his album titled “Apostoli must to hear this” Despite that I am a Pentecostal pastor, I like that song no be small! Many will be surprised to hear that the Yoruba are beginning to grumble about Tinubu’s appointments, especially the ones coming to the South-west.

By Bolanle Bolawole

In journalism parlance, we say facts are sacred and opinion, free; some prefer to say “opinion is cheap”. Writing the manifesto for the Guardian newspaper in 1921, its editor, CP Scott, said: “Comment is free but facts are sacred” Comments, or opinions, are like wishes which an old English proverb says beggars would ride were they to be horses. Facts, however, are empirical and verifiable truths, devoid of the likes or dislikes of its purveyor. Facts are news and must be reported contemporaneously; so that we do not lose any of its essence. Opinion, on the other hand, allows for the idiosyncrasies of the purveyor. While time lag may affect the effectiveness of news, it does no damage to opinion. The liberties that a writer enjoys with opinion is denied in news writing. Talk is another thing that is said to be cheap. It is easy to talk animatedly or flamboyantly about so many things but do nothing afterwards. So, we are advised to walk the talk if we mean to be taken seriously.

By Emeka Obasi

Justices of the Supreme Court of Nigeria should know Samuel Azu Crabbe, Chief Justice of Ghana between 1973 and 1977. He stood his ground, when many feared Jerry Rawlings and Kojo Tsikata were going to intimidate him. The judge delivered justice.

By Enyinnaya Appolos

Thursday, November 16, 2023 is the 119th birthday of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Owelle-Osowa-Anya of Onicha, affectionately called Zik of Africa, a remarkable figure in Nigerian and African journalism and political history.

By Funke Egbemode

This DNA problem is steadily becoming a problematic epidemic, isn’t it? It is querying the integrity of our men’s manhood and stripping our women of their belt of chastity.

By Azu Ishiekwene

“Every morning a lion wakes up, it knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve to death…It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle, you better be running”

By Azu Ishiekwene

It’s not only the poor that are mad, if you get my drift. Even folks who once thought of themselves as middle class, that is, neither wealthy nor poor, are in maddening distress. They can hardly believe how life has come to be what it is today. Perhaps the most frequently asked question is: how did we get here?